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Saturday, July 9, 2011

BROOKLYN ZA

This one is for Smiley!

On my recent trip to New York City I had one food quest at the top of the list... get some NY style pizza. No disrespect to my Chicago roots with deep dish but I'm hands down a thin crust floppy sloppy New York Za kinda guy. A lot of people were telling me to head to Brooklyn, soime said Grimaldi's others touted Di Fara. What's a guy to do but just check them both out!

Since Hawaii is nearly devoid of this style of pizza, all I was really craving for was your average street side pizza by the slice joint to satisfy my pedestrian taste. So on the way back from a shopping excursion from Chelsea Market, I chanced by a no-named joint called Stella's, no frills pizza by the slice that perfectly filled the spot. I loved it!

But I had to see what all the hooplah was about Brooklyn za. So I started with Grimaldi's which was down the street from my brother-in-laws art studio in the shadow of the Brooklyn Bridge.

Anticipating a long line we went early at 11am which proved good as we were seated immediately in a nearly full rustic dining room. Ordered two za's, one cheese and one with

fresh mozz, sausage, pepperoni, mushroom

Good ingredients, charred crust but a little undercooked in the middle. Sum it up... it was just good.

Now a little deeper into Brooklyn to Di Fara Pizza, 3 Metro's, about 20 minutes out of Wall Street.

Got there late at 11:50am thinking they opened at 11:30 but wrong they open at 12 or when they want or depending on how Dominic feels that day, hey, give him respect he's 74.

So standing in line, 3 peps in front of me, the wait begins!12:06 doors still not opened.12:12....12:19 opened!

Dom is looking good! He is the only one touching the pizzas, like a surgeon, all the ingredients are passed to him for his placement.12:25 got my Za!Perfect crust, clean sauce, fresh mozz, fresh hand torn basil by Dom himself, all is all a very good pie

Had the try the "squares" too so 12:39 they come out, like a cross between NY n Chicago deep, richer meat based sauce, damn good! My Winner hands down!

Worth the trip? Given the modest travel, relatively short wait and the squares... definitely yes.